


CONVICTED 

OUT OF HER OWN 

MOUTH 

THE RECORD OF GERMAN GRIMES 



D 626 BY 

G3 W5 jj ^ WILSON 

1917a 
I Copy 1 



Reprinted from 
THE NATIONAL REVIEW 



GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
NEW YORK 

PUBLISHERS IN AMERICA FOR HODDER & STOUGHTON 

MCMXVII 

Priem, Fivm Cmntm 



CONVICTED OUT OF HER 
OWN MOUTH 

The Record of German Crimes 



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: WILSON 



REPRINTED FROM THE NATIONAL REVIEW 



NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



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CONVICTED OUT OF HER 
OWN MOUTH 



In this article the writer proposes to place on record 
the chief offences committed by Germany against the 
laws of war. If only as an answer to the stealthy pro- 
German propaganda and as a justification for the de- 
mand which is being made for reprisals, it is important 
that the facts should be stated in a compact and acces- 
sible form, and be widely known. 

As one of the lines of defence adopted by Germans 
and their secret or open friends is to deny that the 
crimes were ever perpetrated, I shall, whenever pos- 
sible, cite the evidence of German documents and Ger- 
man statements, or of dispassionate neutrals. The 
documents for the most part are soldiers' diaries, found 
on the enemy prisoners or dead, and as they were never 
intended to see the light are free from any sort of 
prejudice. 

I. — Crimes Committed by the German 
Government 

Germany made the War. — The German White 
Book (Official) : *'We were perfectly aware that a 
possible warhke attitude of Austria-Hungary against 
Serbia might bring Russia upon the field, and that it 
might inrolve us in a war in accordance with our duty 

3 



4 CONVICTED OUT OF 

as allies. We could not, however, . . . advise our 
ally to take up a yielding attitude . . . nor deny him 
our assistance in these trying days." — Cd. 7860, p. 
406. (This statement is particularly Important as con- 
tradicting the assurance given by Prince Lichnowsky, 
German Ambassador in London, to Sir E. Grey, that 
*'the German Government were endeavouring to hold 
back and moderate the Cabinet of Vienna," on July 
21, 1 914. Both are given in the British Official Col- 
lected Documents relating to the Outbreak of the Eu- 
ropean War. — Cd. 7860, pp. 151, 406.) 

Maximilian Harden: "Why not admit what is and 
must be the truth, that everything was jointly prepared 
by Vienna and Berlin. We should be . . . unworthy 
of the men who achieved Prussian predominance in 
Germany ... if fifty years after Koniggratz things 
could be otherwise." — Zukunft, August i, 19 14. 

"Let us drop our miserable attempts to excuse Ger- 
many's action. Not against our will and as a nation 
taken by surprise did we fling ourselves into this gigan- 
tic venture. We willed it; we had to will it." — Zukunft, 
November 19 14 (quoted In the Paris Temps, Novem- 
ber 20, 1914). 

Baron Wangenhelm, German Ambassador In Con- 
stantinople, on July 15, 19 14, eight days before the 
communication of the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, 
informed Senator Garroni, the Italian Ambassador in 
Constantinople, that the Note would be so worded as 
to render war Inevitable. This Important fact was dis- 
closed by SIgnor Barzilai in his speech at Naples on 
September 26, 191 5. 

Germany violated the Neutrality of Belgium. — Herr 



HER OWN MOUTH 5 

von Bethmann Hollweg In the Reichstag: "Necessity- 
knows no law. Our troops have occupied Luxemburg 
and have perhaps already entered Belgium. That Is 
contrary to the dictates of international law. The 
wrong — I speak openly — the wrong we are thereby- 
committing we will try to make good as soon as our 
military aims have been attained." — August 4, 19 14. 

Germany and Austria mobilised first. — The Aus- 
trian general mobilisation was ordered at one In the 
morning of July 31, 19 14. This Is not denied by the 
Germans. — Cd. 7860, p. 222. The Russian general 
mobilisation was ordered, according to the German 
official White Book, "during the afternoon of July 31." 
— Cd. 7860, p. 412. 

Germany attacked France. — M. VIvianI, the French 
Prime Minister, reported on August 2, 19 14. "North 
of Delle two German patrols .... crossed the 
frontier this morning and advanced . . . more than 
six miles from the frontier. The officer who com- 
manded the first has blown out the brains of a French 
soldier." — Cd. 7860, p. 236. Herr Bethmann Holl- 
weg, the German Chancellor, admitted in the Reichs- 
tag on August 4, "against express orders a patrol of 
the XIV. Army Corps, apparently led by an officer, 
crossed the frontier on August 2," and proceeded to 
allege that "long before this . . . French airmen had 
penetrated Southern Germany and had thrown bombs 
on our railway lines. French troops had attacked our 
frontier guards at the Schlucht Pass." — Cd. 7860, p. 
438. Herr von Schoen, the German Ambassador In 
Paris, referred to these aeroplane raids and said they 
occurred at Wesel, the Eiffel country, Karlsruhe and 



6 CONVICTED OUT OF 

Nuremberg. A search has been made through the 
Wesel, Karlsruhe and Nuremberg newspapers and it 
shows that no such incident is recorded in them. And 
the Chief Magistrate of Nuremberg on April 3, 191 6, 
informed an inquirer: *'The Acting General Com- 
mandant of the 3rd Bavarian Army Corps in this city- 
has no information that bombs were ever thrown by 
enemy aeroplanes upon the railway lines Nurem- 
berg-Kissingen or Nuremberg-Anspach, either before 
or after the outbreak of war. All such assertions and 
newspaper reports have been found to be false." The 
combat at the Schlucht is equally fabulous. The Ger- 
man declaration of war against France was not issued 
until August 3, at 6.45 p.m. 

Germany publicly lied concerning Great Britain.-^^ 
Herr von Bethmann Hollweg: "The inner responsi- 
bility for the war rests with the Government of Great 
Britain." — Speech in the Reichstag, December 2, 19 14. 
The same speaker said on August 4, 19 14: **Great 
Britain, warmly supported by us, tried to mediate." — 
Cd. 7860, p. 436. The German White Book, dated 
August 1 9 14, stated: "These endeavours of ours for 
mediation were being continued v/Ith Increasing energy, 
supported by English diplomacy." — Cd. 7860, p. 411. 

Falsification of Docttments. — The Nord-deutsche 
Allgemeine Zeitiing, on October 13 and November 24, 
191 5, published documents seized by the Germans in 
the Belgian archives, relating to armed assistance by 
Great Britain if Belgium were attacked, and at the 
same time the German Government published a Dutch 
edition of these documents, accompanied by a photo- 
graph of the text. The photograph contained a pas- 



HER OWN MOUTH 7 

sage on the margin: "The entry of the English into 
Belgium would only take place on the violation of our 
neutrality by Germany," which was omitted in the 
Dutch translation and in the German newspaper. A 
second passage was deliberately altered. It ran in the 
photograph: **Our conversation was quite confiden- 
tial." The German Government altered this into: 
*'Our convention was quite confidential," making it ap- 
pear that there was a secret treaty between Great Brit- 
ain and Belgium. 

The parallel of the Ems dispatch, which was delib- 
erately falsified by Bismarck to create war, will at once 
suggest itself. "Blessed is the hand," wrote the Ger- 
man historian, Hans Delbriick, "that falsified the Ems 
dispatch." 

II. — Crimes Committed on Land by the Serman 

Army 

(i) Against Combatants 

Systematic Murder of Wounded and Prisoners. — 
Diary of R. Brenneisen, of the 112th German Regi- 
ment, prisoner in Great Britain: "The brigade order 
Is to shoot all Frenchmen who fall into our hands, 
wounded or not. No prisoners are to be made." This 
refers to an order issued by Major-General Stenger, 
commanding the 58th Brigade, given verbally. — Bland, 
Germany's Violations of the Laws of War, an official 
French work, p. 53 ; cf. J. H. Morgan, German Atroci- 
ties, pp. 51-52. 

Diary of A. Rothacher, 142nd Regiment, August 



8 CONVICTED OUT OF 

27, 1 9 14: "French prisoners and wounded are all 
shot because they mutilate and ill-treat our wounded." 
— Bland, 54 in photographic facsimile. 

Jauersches Tagehlatt, October 18, 19 14: An ac- 
count by Unter-Offizier Klemt, 154th Regiment, of 
fighting on September 24: "We reached a little de- 
pression; French soldiers lay there, dead or wounded, 
in a mass. We killed or bayoneted the wounded. . . . 
I heard some extraordinary cracks. A soldier of the 
154th was bringing the butt of a rifle down vigorously 
on the bald head of a Frenchman. He was very wisely 
using a French rifle for this purpose, so as not to risk 
breaking his own. Very tender-hearted men were so 
merciful as to finish off the French wounded with a 
bullet, but the others cut and thrust at them as much 
as they could. Our foes had fought valiantly; they 
were picked troops. The gallant fusiliers spare their 
country the cost of caring for many enemies, whether 
these be wounded slightly or severely." This passage 
is reproduced in photographic facsimile by Bedier, Les 
Crimes Allemands, pp. 32-36. It is "certified true by 
De Niem, Lieutenant," and no protest is made against 
it in the German newspaper. 

Diary of Private Hassemer (VIII. Army Corps) : 
"3/9/1914- At Sommepy (Marne) — A horrible mas- 
sacre, the village burnt to the ground, the Frenchmen 
thrown into the burning houses, civilians and all burnt 
together." — Bedier, p. 10. 
\ Liquid-Fire Projectors. — Instructions were issued by 
the Headquarters of the 2nd German Army, on Octo- 
ber 16, 1 9 14, which fell into the hands of the French, 
and contained the following passage: "Flame projec- 



HER OWN MOUTH 9 

tors. . . .They eject a liquid which at once ignites 
spontaneously. The waves of flame have an effective 
range of 25 square yards. . . . They are to be used 
chiefly In street fighting." — Reproduced photographic- 
ally, Bland, 281. 

No protest was made by neutrals. 

Aspkyxiating Gas. — The use of this Is expressly for- 
bidden by The Hague Convention of 1899, which Ger- 
many signed. Sir John French reported on May 3, 
19 1 5, regarding the first use of poison gas on the 
British front at Ypres: *'A week before the Germans 
first used this method they announced In their official 
communique that we were making use of asphyxiating 
gases. At the time there appeared to be no reason 
for this astounding falsehood, but now, of course, It 
is obvious that it was part of the scheme. It . . . 
shows they recognised Its Illegahty and were anxious 
to forestall neutral and possibly domestic criticism." 
According to prisoners the gas was contained in steel 
cylinders, fitted with tubes pointed to the British 
trenches. Asphyxiating shells were also employed by 
the enemy. 

Crimes against the Red Cross and White Flag. Fir- 
ing on the Red Cross. — The evidence was collected by 
Lord Bryce's Committee (Appendix to Report, Cd. 
7895, p. 135 ff.), where It Is stated that the enemy 
shelled buildings on which the Red Cross flag was con- 
spicuously flying, even when so close to them that there 
could be no difficulty in making out the flag; that he 
fired on stretcher-bearers and ambulances; and that In 
one case a Red Cross depot was shelled on most days 
In the week. 



lo CONVICTED OUT OF 

Abuse of the Red Cross. — Evidence that the Ger- 
mans mounted machine-guns in Red Cross ambulances 
and that ammunition was carried in a Red Cross motor- 
car under command of officers is contained in the Re- 
port of Lord Bryce's Committee. — ^Appendix, Cd. 
7895, pp. 138-140. 

Misuse of the White Flag. — "There Is sufficient 
evidence that these offences have been frequent, delib- 
erate, and in many cases committed by whole units un- 
der orders." — Lord Bryce's Report, p. 60. 

Murder of Medical Officers and Stretcher-bearers, 
— ^While a number of wounded were being attended to 
in a hospital at Gomery, a patrol of the 47th German 
Infantry appeared, and began a general massacre of 
the wounded and medical staff. Assistant-Surgeon 
Vaissiere was mortally wounded; the hospital, full of 
wounded, was deliberately set on fire; Stretcher-bearer 
Gressc was shot; and in all about 400 wounded Belgian 
soldiers were killed or burnt to death. Statements re- 
garding this affair have been made by the Chief Sur- 
geon Simonin and six stretcher-bearers. (Several of 
these are printed in Bland, pp. 229-244.) 

Use of Poison. — This is forbidden by The Hague 
Convention. A message sent by Captain Kriiger of 
the German South-West African force to "Outpost, 
Pforte," was captured by General Botha on March 10, 
1915, and ran: "The patrol Gabib has been instructed 
thoroughly to infect with disease the Ida Mine. Ap- 
proach Swakop and Ida Mine with extreme caution 
and do not water there." — In facsimile, Cd. 8306, p. 
76. In other cases arsenic was found in water, and a 
box of sodium arsenlte (used for sheep-dip, weighing 



HER OWN MOUTH ii 

60 lb.) was discovered near such water. The German 
commander professed that "water-places have to be 
regarded as war material," and were therefore "ren- 
dered useless." Pie alleged that large notice-boards 
were placed to warn the British. This, according to 
General Botha, was untrue. On General Botha threat- 
ening reprisals the practice stopped. 

Maltreatment of Prisoners of War. — Report of 
Major Vandaleur, captured October 13, 19 14; "At 
Douai I was subjected to continual abuse and revile- 
ment. . . . No food was given, no straw. . . . On 
October 17 . . .we were all marched off to the rail- 
way station, being reviled at and cursed all the way by 
German officers as well as German soldiers. One of 
our officers was spat on by a German officer. . . . We 
were driven into closed-in wagons from which horses 
had just been removed, fifty-two men being crowded 
into the one in which the other four officers and myself 
were. So tight were we packed that there was only 
room for some of us to sit down on the floor. This 
floor was covered fully three inches deep in fresh ma- 
nure, and the stench of horse urine was almost asphyx- 
iating. ... At Mons I was pulled out in front of the 
wagon by the order of the officer in charge of the sta- 
tion, and after cursing me in filthy language ... he 
ordered one of his soldiers to kick me back into the 
wagon, which he did [Major Vandaleur was wounded]. 
. . . One of these wagons is considered to be able to 
accommodate six horses or forty men, and this only 
with the doors open to admit of ventilation." In this 
wagon they were seventy-two hours. — Cd. 7862, pp. 
10-12; cf. Cd. 3108; pp. 14-19. 



12 CONVICTED OUT OF 

Private Tulley of the Royal Marines was taken pris- 
oner at Antwerp in 19 14, when he weighed fourteen 
stone. Through maltreatment and medical neglect he 
developed tuberculosis and arrived in Engand "ex- 
tremely emaciated" as an exchanged prisoner early in 
1916. He died a fortnight later in Millbank Hospi- 
tal, weighing five stone. — Question in the House of 
Commons, April 15, 1916, when, however, it was offi- 
cially stated that there was no record of his weight at 
death. The figure given is, if unofficial, accurate. 

Evidence was given by Major Priestley and other 
British medical officers of the condition of the British 
prisoners in the typhus-infested camp at Wittenberg 
during 19 15. The typhus infection is carried by lice 
which are found on all soldiers subject to campaign- 
ing conditions. When the epidemic broke out the Ger- 
man medical staff fled. There was no soap. The food 
ration for the sick was a small roll and half a cup of 
milk a day. The sick were lying, filthily dirty, and 
many of them on the floor, without beds or mattresses. 
"Major Priestley saw delirious men waving arms 
brown to the elbow with fscal matter. The patients 
were alive with vermin ; in the half light he attem.pted 
to brush what he took to be an accumulation of dust 
from the folds of a patient's clothes and he discovered 
it to be a moving mass of lice." When the soldiers 
died their coffins were jeered at by the inhabitants of 
Wittenberg, "who stood outside the wire and were 
permitted to insult their [the British] dead." Dr. As- 
chenbach, a prominent German official, curtly refused 
a request for an urgent medical requisite with the words 
"Schweine Englander." — Cd. 8224. 



HER OWN MOUTH i^ 

At this camp Mr. Osborne, of the United States 
Embassy in Berlin, reported complaints that one of the 
watchmen kept a large and fierce dog 'Vhich had at- 
tacked and torn the clothes of several of the prisoners," 
and stated that "all evidence of kindly and humane 
feeling between the authorities and the prisoners was 
lacking." Mr. Gerard, the United States Ambassador, 
paid a visit to this same camp in November, 191 5, and 
reported that his impression was "distinctly unfavour- 
able." 

There was a considerable improvement in the condi- 
tion and treatment of the British prisoners in late 19 15 
and 19 1 6, due (a) to fear of reprisals, as the number 
of German prisoners in British hands was considerably 
in excess of the total of British prisoners in German 
hands at the end of 191 5; (b) to the eliorts of the 
United States Embassy to put down brutality. 

(2) Crimes against Non-combatants on Land 

Use of Non-combatants as Screens. — Lieutenant 
Eberlein, in a letter published in the Miinchener 
Neueste Nachrichten, October 7, 19 14, in an account 
of the capture of Saint-Die by the Bavarians, stated 
that he had to barricade himself in a house against the 
French troops. "We had seized three civilians, and a 
capital idea entered my head. We clapped them down 
on chairs and made them understand that they must sit 
on these chairs in the middle of the street. ... I 
pitied them, but the plan was immediately efficacious; 
the enfilading fire from the houses on us diminished 
at once. . . . The reserve regiment which en- 



14 CONVICTED OUT OF 

tered Saint-Die from the north had experiences very 
similar to our own. Four civilians whom they, like our- 
selves, forced to sit in the street, were killed by French 
bullets. I saw them myself stretched out dead in the 
middle of the street." The Munchener Neueste Nach- 
richten recorded no protest against this story. — Pas- 
sage reproduced in facsimile, Bedier, 20. 

Verdict of the Bryce Committee: "That the rules 
and usages of war were frequently broken [by the Ger- 
mans], particularly by the using of civilians, including 
women and children, as a shield for advancing forces 
exposed to fire." — Report of Committee, p. 61. 

"During the attack on the village of Autriche which 
Lieutenant Courtois (of the French army) had entered 
with his section, he saw that all the women and children 
of the place were put at the windows with the Germans 
behind them. . . . He and some dozen of his men 
were struck down by a volley." — Report of Major 
Hennoegen, 354th (French Infantry) Regiment, of 
events on September 23, 19 14. (Bland, p. 320.) 

Murder of Women and Children. — P. Spielmann, 
Ersatz Battalion, ist Guard Infantry Brigade, wrote 
in his diary of a massacre of people in a village near 
Blamont on September i, 19 14: "It was horrible; 
blood was spattered on all the houses; as for the faces 
of the dead they were hideous. Among them were 
many old women, old men, and one woman with child, 
all horrible to look at, and three children clinging to 
one another and killed in this position. This morning 
all the survivors were expelled. I saw a mother with 
two little children ; one had a huge wound on its head 
and one eye put out." — Facsimile in Bedier, 8. 



HER OWN MOUTH 15 

Unsigned diary: "Langeviller (August 22) ; village 
destroyed by the i ith Pioneers. Three women hanged 
to trees." Same diary, August 30: ''We destroyed 
eight houses with their inhabitants. In one of them 
we bayoneted two men with their wives and a girl of 
eighteen. The girl all but melted me; her look was 
so full of innocence. But we could not repress the 
excitement of the troops; at such moments they are 
beasts, not men." — Bedier, in facsimile, 15-17. 

Wholesale Massacres of Civilians. — Diary of 
Philipp, 178th Regiment of Infantry: "At the en- 
trance to the village (near Dinant) lay about fifty dead 
civilians, shot for having fired upon our troops from 
ambulances. In the course of the night many others 
were shot, so that we counted over two hundred. 
Women and children, lamp in hand, were forced to' 
look on at the horrible scene." — Bedier, facsimile, 12. 

Diary of officer in this regiment, name unknown: 
"The men simply threw the males of the village into 
the flames." — Bedier, 11. 

Diary of a soldier of the 32nd Reserve Infantry 
Regiment: "Creil, September 3. The iron bridge 
was blown up. Because of this the streets were set on 
fire and the civilians shot." [The bridge was blown 
up by the French troops, not by the inhabitants.] — 
Bedier, 9. 

Diary of a lieutenant in the 49th Infantry Regiment: 
"At Vise it was more appalling ... a fusillade broke 
out in all the houses. The Pioneers replied. (In real- 
ity they fired blindly at random and to some extent 
fired on one another.) Because of this the whole town 
was burnt. In addition 375 men were shot." — Fac- 



1 6 CONVICTED OUT OF 

simile in Dampierre, U Allemagne et le Droit des Gens, 
p. 217. 

"In these terrible days at Dinant and the neighbour- 
ing villages more than 800 people were killed, among 
whom were many women and children. . . . They be- 
gan by shooting fifty-three civilians. . . . For three 
days women and children were shut up in little rooms, 
without even a chair, and the wretched creatures passed 
these three days on the stone floor almost without food; 
four of them gave birth to children in these terrible 
conditions. . . . The women and children were sepa- 
rated from the men and placed on the other side of the 
little square. Then firing-parties drew up between the 
two groups and 153 hapless men fell with the death- 
rattle." — Evidence of a Dutch subject, M. Staller, in 
the Dutch Telegraaf, translated in the Temps, Decem- 
ber 19, 1 9 14. This massacre was caused by the loss 
which the French troops had inflicted on the Germans. 

Particulars of massacres at Louvain, Andenne, 
Liege, and Aerschot are contained in the Bryce Re- 
port and Appendix. 

Rape of Women. — Diary of J. van der Schoot, 39th 
Reserve Infantry. "We copulated and caroused 
through the streets of Liege." — Document in Appen- 
dix to the Bryce Report. — Cd. 7895, p. 173. 

See, too, this statement from the diary of a soldier 
of the 1 2th Infantry of Reserve, reproduced in fac- 
simile in Bedier, p. 25 : "Last night a man of the 
Landwehr, more than thirty-five years of age, married, 
tried to violate the quite young daughter of the man 
in whose house he was quartered; when the father came 
upon the scene, he held his bayonet to his breast." 



HER OWN MOUTH 17 

Report of the French police at La Ferte-Gaucher : 
''The Germans . . , returned in the evening intoxi- 
cated; they then violated the young woman Y. and 
Mme. X." This report is accompanied by the state- 
ment of the two women. — Bland, 93-7. In this same 
neighbourhood two wounded British cavalrymen were 
murdered by the Germans. — French Official Report, 
December 17, 19 14. 

Much evidence is contained in the official French 
and Belgian Reports which shows that these outrages 
were not isolated events, but occurred in almost every 
district and in large number. For example, at Bailleul, 
occupied by a German cavalry regiment for only eight 
days, there were thirty cases of outrages on women 
sworn to and authenticated generally by medical certifi- 
cates, and the act-ual number of outrages is estimated 
at sixty. — J. H. Morgan, German Atrocities^' p, SI- 

Torture of Women. — A British officer heard shrieks 
in the night behind the German trenches at RIchebourg 
TAvoue ; when the British troops stormed the position 
next day a girl "was found naked on the ground 
'pegged out' in the form of a crucifix." — Morgan, p. 

63. 

Forced Labour and Deportation of Women and 
Men. — In a note issued July 25, 191 6, the French Gov- 
ernment challenged Germany to permit neutral Powers 
to inquire into the seizure of non-combatants at Lille, 
Roubalx, and Tourcoing, in April, 191 6. The facts 
were that 22,000 girls over twenty, women and men In 
these French towns, then in enemy occupation, were 
seized by German soldiers from regiments defeated at 
Verdun, and carried off In droves, all together, pell- 



1 8 CONVICTED OUT OF 

mell. The men were to be employed In forced labour 
on the land, on roads, and in the manufacture of muni- 
tions. The women were to cook and wash for the sol- 
diers and to replace the officers' orderlies. Evidence 
was produced showing that young women had been 
forced to work for the enemy under fire, had been 
brutally ill-used, had been miserably fed, and In some 
cases had been flogged. 

The German Government refused to allow any neu- 
tral State to Inquire into the facts. — See Les Allemands 
a Lille, French official publication. 

Pillage. — A German post card (photographed In 
Dampierre, p. 175) shows German soldiers actually 
engaged in the process of systematically stripping a 
house at Villers-la-Montagne. A German document 
signed by a high officer of the German 2nd Infantry 
Division (photographed in Dampierre, p. 174) orders 
"this cantonment not to be pillaged." 

A diary of a private of the 65th Landwehr says of 
certain German troops : "They do not behave as sol- 
diers, but as highwaymen, bandits, and brigands." — 
Facsimile In Bedier, p. 24, with many similar passages 
from other diaries. 

A series of documents discovered on Germans (pho- 
tographed In Dampierre, pp. 177-180) shows that 
prisoners were plundered of their money and the money 
divided between the officers and men. The names of 
Captain Kriipper and Lieutenants WInterhoff and Cas- 
par! occur as sharing the responsibility for this breach 
of the laws of war. 

Dr. Gustav Streseman, a member of the Reichstag 
(in Das Deutsche Wirtschaftsleben im Kriege, p. 50), 



HER OWN MOUTH 19 

stated In 19 15, in answer to a complaint of the Paris 
Chamber of Commerce that Belgium had been me- 
thodically pillaged of raw materials and manufactured 
goods : **This pillage has also been effected in France 
so far as concerns the textile and engineering Indus- 
tries ... so that now the losses Inflicted on France 
must reach several hundred millions sterling/' 

General von BIssIng not only admitted but defended 
the pillage of Belgium. "Without coal what would 
have become of our policy of industrial exchange, not 
only with Holland, but also with far distant northern 
countries? The annual Belgian production of 23,- 
000,000 tons of coal has given us a monopoly on the 
Continent which has helped to maintain our vitality." 
— (General von Bissing's Testament.) 

Arson, — Photographs of villages wantonly burnt by 
the Germans appear on their own picture post cards, 
some of which have been reproduced. — (Damplerre, 
p. 172, gives such a post card of Etain, which the enemy 
has christened Eton.) 

Numerous German diaries record the burning of 
villages, usually on the excuse that the German troops 
were fired on, though In almost every such case where 
there was firing It can be shown to have proceeded from 
uniformed and organised French troops. For example, 
the diary of a warrant officer of the 117th Infantry 
says : "Approaching the Meuse we draw a violent fire 
from Infantry and machine-guns on the fringe of the 
wood on the farther bank. The enemy retired. The 
village (of VIUers-sur-Meuse) was burnt.** 

The pretext that the French and Belgian population 
was armed was advanced in some quarters as an excuse 



20 CONVICTED OUT OF 

for these outrages. The statement was not generally 
true, though, even if it were, The Hague Convention 
permits the spontaneous defence of its native country 
by an invaded population. But in East Prussia where 
the whole German civilian population was armed and 
repeatedly attacked the Russian troops, when some 
small portion of Memel was burnt, the German Gov- 
ernment in a note denounced this as a breach of the 
laws of war — thereby condemning its own conduct in 
Belgium — and stated that ten Russian villages would 
be burnt for each German one. 

The Official Report of the French Commission ap- 
pointed to investigate acts committed by the enemy in 
violation of International Law sums up the behaviour 
of the German troops in the evacuated territory in 
these words: *'After they had been pillaged, houses, 
chateaux, and farms were destroyed by means of ex- 
plosives, or were set on fire or demolished with pick- 
axes. . . . Chauny, a manufacturing town of nearly 
1 1,000 inhabitants, is nothing but a heap of ruins, save 
for the suburb of Le Bronage. . . . One has only to 
look at all these ruins to recognise that they were not 
heaped one upon another merely for military reasons, 
and that the desire to injure was the essential motive.'' 

Destruction of Historic Buildings and Objects of 
Art, — ^At Louvain, by the admission of Miss Emily 
Hobhouse, one-eighth of the city was destroyed. The 
number of houses burnt was 894 in Louvain itself and 
500 in the suburbs, and among the buildings destroyed 
was the University library with its archives and collec- 
tion of unpublished manuscripts. M. Grondijs, a Dutch 
professor, a dispassionate neutral eye-witness, has given 



HER OWN MOUTH 21 

an account of this crime and of the temper in which it 
was committed. He quotes a German officer who told 
his men: "As yet we have burnt only villages . . . 
now we are beginning to burn towns. Louvain will be 
the first." He records a dialogue with a German sol- 
dier whom he asked how the Germans knew who had 
fired on them, to which the man replied, "Do you 
Imagine we trouble to search thoroughly on a dark 
night?" He describes the deliberate burning of a 
church, and, if the Germans tried to prevent the fire — 
which, as he said, they had lighted themselves — -from 
spreading in the direction of the town hall, he points 
out that the German Headquarters were in that build- 
ing. — Facts concerning Louvain will be found in R. 
Narsy, Le Supplice de Louvain, which also contains 
and analyses the German "explanations." 

Rheims Cathedral was repeatedly and deliberately 
shelled by the Germans, on the false excuse that there 
was an observation post on the tower. The Germans 
stated that the bombardment began on September 20, 
19 14, when a white flag was dishonourably shown on 
the cathedral; the actual date v/hen the bombardment 
began was, however, September 19, the day before the 
pretended offence. General von Disfurt, a German 
officer of distinction, wrote of this in the Tag: "The 
meanest grave of one of our soldiers Is more venerable 
than all the cathedrals, all the art treasures of the 
world." 

The facts regarding Rheims will be found in La Ba^ 
silique Devastee, by "Vindex." The state of the cathe- 
dral is the proof of the charges against the Germans. 

The beautiful Cathedral of St. Quentin has been 



22 CONVICTED OUT OF 

practically destroyed, the Germans announcing the 
fact to the world by accusing the French of being the 
cause of it. 

At Senlis and Ypres similar wanton damage was 
done, and there again the ruins bear their testimony 
against the German command. 

Sacrilege. — Diary of a soldier of the 12th Infan- 
try, III. Reserve Corps: *'A man entered the sacristy 
where was the Holy Sacrament (out of respect a Prot- 
estant had refused to sleep there) : he left there a great 
mass of excrement." — Photographic facsimile in 
Bedier, 25. References to photographs and docu- 
ments in U Allemagne et les Allies devant la Conscience 
Chretienne, pp. 374-377. 

His Holiness the Pope, in the interview with M. 
Laudet, said: "You ask me if I condemn, in principle, 
the atrocities committed. In principle — that is not 
enough. I condemn them concretely. All the world 
knows that Germany has committed them/' — U Alle- 
magne et les Allies devant la Conscience Chretienne, 
p. 170. 

Murder of Priests. — Cardinal Mercier, the saintly 
Archbishop of Malines, in a letter to the German Gov- 
ernor, stated: *'The names of the priests and of mem- 
bers of the religious orders in the diocese of Malines 
who, to my knowledge, have been put to death by the 
German troops are: Dupierreux, of the Society of 
Jesus; Sebastian Allard, of the Congregation of Jo- 
sephites; Brother Candide, of the Congregation of 
Brothers of Our Lady of Pity; Father Vincent; Pro- 
fessor Carette; Lombaert, Goris, de Clerck, Dergent, 
Wouters, Van Bladel, parish priests. . . . The body 



HER OWN MOUTH 23 

of the priest at Herent has been recovered at Louvain 
and identified. Other figures which I gave in my pas- 
toral letter must to-day (January 24, 191 5) be in- 
creased; thus at Aerschot I gave 91 victims as the fig- 
ure; the total of bodies exhumed is 143." He called 
for a commission of inquiry composed in equal parts 
of Belgians and Germans, and presided over by a neu- 
tral representative. No notice was taken of this de- 
mand. An inquiry was made, however, by a priest dis- 
patched by Cardinal Piffl, Archbishop of Vienna, the 
results of which were damning, and were never pub- 
lished in the German Press. — Lettre de VEpiscopate 
Beige aux Cardinaux^ Texte Officiel, No. 72 of Pages 
Actuelles, pp. 32-3 and 36. 

III. — Crimes Committed by the German Air 

Forces 

Bombing of Non-combatants and Open Towns. — 
In the Zeppelin raids on Great Britain bombs werB 
consistently dropped on small towns and residential 
districts of large towns. Military works were avoided; 
in general the German airships were nowhere near mu- 
nition works. Full statements by neutrals have been 
published on this head. Down to September 4, 191 6, 
352 persons had been killed and 799 injured — almost 
all non-combatants and many of them women and chil- 
dren — in German air raids. The writer is able to say, 
after personally examining the bomb-discharging ap- 
paratus in L 33, that it was of such a nature as to make 
hitting any target out of the question at a height of 
5,000 feet or more, at which these airships attack. 



24 CONVICTED OUT OF 

There were two large aeroplane raids upon London, 
both of which caused considerable loss of life. The 
first of these took place on June 13, 19 17, and caused 
the death of 157 men, women, and children, and 432 
were injured. Of the casualties, 142 were small chil- 
dren, some being killed at school. The second attack 
on London was on July 7. The raid was made by 
twenty large Gotha machines and 59 persons were 
killed and 193 injured. 

"The attack of bombardment by any means what- 
ever of undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or build- 
ings" Is forbidden by Article 25 of The Hague Con- 
vention of 1907. 

Attacks by German Aircraft on Neutral Vessels with- 
out Warning or Regard for the Safety of Those on 
Board. — On April 26, 191 6, the United States oil 
steamer Gushing, of 7,000 tons, flying the United States 
flag, with her name painted on her side in letters 6 
feet high, was attacked north of the Maas Lightship 
by a German aeroplane, which dropped three bombs 
aimed at her. One struck the stern rail and exploded, 
nearly killing several of her crew. 

The United States protested, and directed Its Am- 
bassador In Berlin to demand explanations. 

Similar attacks were made by German seaplanes No. 
79 and 85 on the Dutch vessels Hihernia (March, 
19 15), and '5 Gravenhage (May, i9i5);bytwo Ger- 
man aeroplanes on the Greek steamer Miron in the 
^gean; and by Zeppelins on the Danish steamer Alexy 
and the Norwegian steamer Uranus (April, 1915). 
Since that date they have been reported from time to 
time. 



HER OWN MOUTH 25 

IV. — ^^Crimes Committed by the German Sea 
Forces 

Submarine Murders. — "Great ships like the Lusi- 
tania and the Arabic^ and pure passenger ships, like the 
Sussex, have been attacked without any warning, often 
before they were aware they were in the presence of 
an armed enemy ship, and the life of non-combatants, 
passengers, and crews was Indiscriminately destroyed 
in a manner which the Government of the United 
States could only regard as wanton and lacking every 
justification. Indeed, no limit was set to the . . . de- 
struction of merchantmen of every kind and nationality 
outside the waters which the Imperial (German) Gov- 
ernment had been pleased to Indicate as within the war 
zone. The list of Americans who lost their lives in the 
vessels thus attacked . . . has risen to hundreds." — 
United States Note of April, 19 16, to Germany. 

The greatest of these crimes, thus branded by a 
neutral Government, was the sinking of the Lusitania 
on May 7, 1915, when 1,400 men, women, and children 
were drowned. 

In the British Museum is a medal struck in Germany 
to celebrate the event. On the obverse is a crowd of 
Americans taking tickets which are given them by a 
skeleton, with the motto Geschaft iiber A lies: "Busi- 
ness above everything." On the reverse is the Lusi- 
tania sinking, with an inscription to the effect that she 
was torpedoed by a German submarine on May 5, 19 15 
(the real date was May 7), and above the ship is the 
motto : "No contraband." She has a ram in her stem 



26 CONVICTED OUT OF 

and on her deck is an aeroplane. The medal is by 
Goetz. — The Times, July 14, 191 6. 

The German Government at the end of January, 
19 1 7, announced that on February i she would begin 
an unrestricted campaign in which she would use ''all 
means'* to prevent any sea traffic with Great Britain, 
France, Italy, and the allied Mediterranean bases. By 
this action the Germans threw overboard all pretence 
to act in accordance with International Law or even 
with the elementary dictates of humanity. 

Use of Mines. — Mines were scattered by the Ger- 
mans in enormous quantities outside territorial waters, 
on the high seas, in the track of neutral shipping, with- 
out warning. Thus, in the opening days of the war, 
large mine-fields were laid in the North Sea outside 
British waters, off Lowestoft, Hull, and Newcastle. 
Off Lowestoft the mine-field ran out to a distance of 
fifty miles or more from the coast. Large numbers of 
neutral vessels struck German mines and were sunk or 
badly damaged by them — to give examples, Carih, U.S. 
steamer, sunk on February 23, 191 5, in the North 
Sea; Amstel, Dutch steamer, mined and sunk on March 
28; Folke, Swedish, mined and sunk on April 14; 
Lilian Drost, Danish, mined and sunk on May 15. 
Mines were scattered to the north-west of Ireland in 
the autumn of 19 14 on the route of neutral as well as 
British shipping to the United States. 

This question of laying mines outside territorial wa- 
ters was raised at the Second Hague Conference by 
the British Government, when the German representa- 
tive, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, said in answer 
to a British proposal to forbid mines as inhuman and 



HER OWN MOUTH 27 

dangerous to neutrals: ''The officers of the German 
Navy, I say It loudly, will always fulfil in the strictest 
fashion the duties which the unwritten law of humanity 
and of civilisation lay on them." — Cd. 4,081. Pro- 
tocols of the Second Peace Conference, p. 55. 

Wanton Bombardment of Open Towns. — On De- 
cember 16, 1 9 14, the German battle cruisers under Ad- 
miral Hipper shelled Whitby, Scarborough, and the 
Hartlepools, killing 150 non-combatants, many of 
whom were women and children, and wounding over 
400. No notice was given; no naval operations were 
undertaken; the fire was directed at houses and resi- 
dential districts. On April 25, 19 16, a similar pur- 
poseless attack was made on Lowestoft and Yarmouth, 
but on this occasion only very trifling loss was Inflicted. 

This conduct was forbidden by The Hague Conven- 
tions. 

Torpedoing of Hospital Ships. — On February 2, 
1915, a torpedo was fired by a German submarine 
at the British hospital ship Asturias, while it was still 
daylight. The torpedo missed owing to the skilful 
seamanship of the captain. The fact was not denied 
by the German Admiralty, but It pretended that the 
torpedo was fired In the dark. On November 21, 1 9 1 6, 
a German submarine torpedoed or sank by a mine the 
hospital ship Britannic; on November 24, 19 16, the 
hospital ship Braemar Castle. 

At the beginning of 19 17 Germany declared that she 
would sink all hospital ships passing between Britain 
and France; but the effect upon neutrals of this bar- 
barous action was so great that after a few months 
the policy was abandoned and hospital ships were al- 



28 CONVICTED OUT OF 

lowed free passage provided they carried Spanish offi- 
cers who would vouch for the vessels being restricted 
to the purposes for which they were designed. 

Murder of Captain Fryatt. — On June 23, 19 16, the 
British passengei steamer Brussels, Captain Charles 
Fryatt, was captured by German torpedo craft off Zee- 
brugge. He vv^as separated from the other British sub- 
jects on board the ship, tried by court-martial on July 
27, and sentenced to death on the charge that he had 
been guilty of acting as "a franc-tireur." He was shot 
after the German Emperor and the German Head- 
quarters Staff and Admiralty at a council had deter- 
mined to put him to death. 

The offence imputed to him was that on March 28, 
191 5, he had tried to ram a submarine which was at- 
tempting to sink him. That he had done so is not de- 
nied: he was acting under the instructions of the Brit- 
ish Admiralty, which acted on the immemorial and un- 
disputed law of the sea, an element on which the Ger- 
mans were newcomers. 

In Article 2 of the Appendix to the German Naval 
Prize Regulations, issued in Berlin on June 22, 19 14, 
for the purpose of this war, it was laid down that *'if 
an armed enemy merchant vessel offers armed resist- 
ance . . . the crew are to be treated as prisoners of 
war" (and not to be shot). 

No "franc-tireur" crime, whatever that is, exists at 
sea. Chief-Justice Marshall, of the United States, 
laid down the law that a belligerent vessel has a per- 
fect right to arm in her own defence. The British 
Lord Stowell said that If the master of a merchant ship 
does his best to save his ship by gun-lire or otherwise, 



HER OWN MOUTH 29 

"no duty Is violated by such act on his part. . . . He 
may run from the sea-wolf, or he may, if he can, kill 
it." The principle was accepted by the German jurists 
Wehberg and Perels on the very eve of war. 

The modern U.S. Naval War Code, Italian Code, 
and Russian Prize Regulations recognise the right of a 
merchant ship to defend herself. — Pearce Higgins, 
Armed Merchant Ships , which contains a masterly sum- 
mary of the law on the subject, and demolishes the Ger- 
man Admiralty's pretexts. 

V. — ^^German Outrages in the United States 

Levying of War in Neutral Countries on the Allies 
and on Subjects of those Neutral Countries ^ engaged in 
Legitimate Trade with the Allies. — The German and 
Austrian Embassies in the United States and their 
agents (i) paid for attacks on Canadian territory; 
thus the cheque paid for the destruction of an impor- 
tant bridge on the Canadian Pacific Railway by a Ger- 
man agent named Horn on February 2, 19 15, was 
found In the German papers seized by the British Gov- 
ernment In the luggage of Captain von Papen, the Ger- 
man Military Attache at Washington. — Cd. 8,174, p. 
17; cf. also Cd. 8,232. (2) Arranged strikes in 
American factories making munitions for the Allied 
Governments. "We must send so-called 'soap-box' 
orators who will know, and so start a useful agitation. 
We shall want money for popular meetings. . . . We 
must stir up men's feelings." A document containing 
this passage, prepared by the editor of the German- 
subventloned Szabadsag, was enclosed by Dr. Dumba, 



3® CONVICTED OUT OF 

Austrian Ambassador at Washington, to the Austrian 
•Government, and was captured by the British authori- 
ties in the papers carried by J. F. J. Archibald. — Cd. 
8,012, p. II. (3) Planned explosions or fires in mu- 
nition factories which caused heavy loss of life among 
American subjects, as at Wilmington, September i, 
191 5 ; in the Bethlehem, Baldwin, and Roebling Works, 
in November, 19 15; in the Dupont Works, December 
I, when thirty-one men were killed; while Hopewell, 
where lived the men employed in one of the Dupont 
Powder Works, was set on fire and destroyed on De- 
-cember 9. Many documents bearing on these and 
other crimes fell into the hands of the United States 
authorities. 

In 19 17 it was discovered that Germany, through 
her diplomatic agents at New York, had actually been 
sounding Mexico as to taking action against the United 
States in the event of war between Germany and Amer- 
ica. Japan was also to be involved with the United 
States. Zimmerman, the Foreign Secretary, even then 
defended the policy when it became known. 

To complete this summary, which only gives typical 
crimes and does not exhaust the vast catalogue of Ger- 
man outrages and atrocities, committed as these have 
been on every front and In every field, certain passages 
from the famous German JVar Book may be quoted to 
show the German frame of mind. They are taken 
from the admirable translation by Professor Morgan : 

"International law is in no way opposed to the ex- 
ploitation of the crimes of third parties (assassination, 
incendiarism, robbery, and the like) to the prejudice 
of the enemy. . . . The ugly and immoral aspect of 



HER OWN MOUTH 31 

such methods cannot affect the recognition of their law- 
fulness." — p. 86. 

"Certain severities are indispensable to war — nay, 
more, . . . the only true humanity very often lies in 
a ruthless application of them." — ^p. 55. 

*'By the law of war is meant not a lex scripta, . . . 
but only a reciprocity of mutual agreement; a limita- 
tion of arbitrary behaviour . . . for the observance 
of which there exists no express sanction, but only the 
fear of reprisals." — p. 54. 



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